With an aim to keep its national party tag intact the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party could be the only political party in the country to contest over 500 seats in the coming lok Sabha polls. The party has asked its state unit to give names as early as possible regarding this, a senior BSP leader said.
He said in 2009 lok Sabha polls also the BSP had fielded over 500 candidates in 25 states and union territories as compared to 440 candidates fielded by the Congress and 433 by Bharatiya Janata Party. Of these only 21 candidates had emerged winners - all of them from Uttar Pradesh.
BSP, trying to recover from the defeat in 2012 assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, has already announced all 80 lok Sabha candidates from the state.
The party which came into existence on April 14, 1984, had contested 245 candidates in 18 states for the first time in 1989 lok Sabha polls in which it had got only three seats. In 1991 general elections BSP had fielded 243 and in 1996 it fielded 210 candidates. After attaining the national political party status it fielded 258 candidates while in 2004, the number of BSP candidates in 25 states was 435 - highest till then.
The new record was established in 2009 polls when the BSP had contested over 500 candidates all over the country. Out of these, the party had contested all seven seats in Delhi, 39 seats in Bihar,40 in Andhra Pradesh, 24 in Gujarat, 27 in Maharashtra, 28 in Madhya Pradesh, 37 in Tamil Nadu, 41 in West Bengal,10 in Haryana,13 in Pujab, 12 in Jharkhand, five in Uttarakhand along with candidates in Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar and Pondicherry.
"It is true that the BSP can not win all the seats but it would certainly increase the mass base of the party nationally. It would also galvanise the party organisations in several states other than Uttar Pradesh where the party holds major stake," he said.